USAF VC-137 62-6000, call sign SAM 26000, unless the President was aboard.
Then, of course, she was called Air Force One.
She was used for backup service after 72-7000 entered service and continued on for a time after the two VC-25As entered service. The VC-25s were probably too hefty for some missions; both of the VC-137s kept flying until some VC-32s became operational. Only then were the VC-137s retired. 62-6000 was retired in 1998, 72-7000 in 2001.
62-6000 is at the Air Force Museum in Ohio, 72-7000 is at the Reagan Library in California.
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Sunday, December 7, 2014
3 comments:
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There are tons of people who think A1 (Air Force One in ATC-speak) is a specific airplane. As you've alluded, there are actually two AF aircraft in the current roster which are commonly used as A1, but they are by no means the only ones. Any AF plane in inventory can be A1.
ReplyDeleteHere is a strip from the one time I worked A1, and as you can see, he (possibly Clinton, but more likely Bush the Elder) was riding in a C-9, which is a military version of a DC-9. ADW (Andrews) to JAC (Jackson Hole, WY). By the way, the fix preceding JAC in the route of flight is one of my all time favorite navaids—CZI, Crazy Woman, WY.
Sorry, I can't directly code an image, but if you click on the link you'll see the strip in question.
A1 strip
LRod
ZJX, ORD, ZAU retired
Another tidbit of arcane and probably useless knowledge.
ReplyDeleteThe six digit serial numbers for all AF aircraft denote the year of manufacture of the aircraft. Thus the "62" not surprisingly means 1962. That's why there's a hyphen between digits two and three.
However, for callsign use, only five digits are used, and the hyphen is dropped. And although the most basic callsign would be "Air Force" plus the last five digits which are usually pronounced individually (two six zero zero zero) historically numbers such as those are usually spoken as "twenty six thousand".
Tactical callsigns (Bat21, for example), bear no relationship to the serial number. The Navy has a third alternative in which they use the two letters of their squadron and the last three digits of the serial number.
There's an interesting story in a book about AF1 I read which relates when Nixon was being transported to CA after he resigned. He took off as president, first on VM1 (Marine One) and then on AF1. They were out over Kansas as Ford was sworn in, and as soon as the crew had been informed of the swearing in, the pilot called ATC and advised that they were changing their call sign from AF1 to SAM 26000 (or it might have been 27000, but you get the idea).
By the way, the two VC25s are 28000 and 29000. Don't know the year.
LRod
ZJX, ORD, ZAU retired
Brings back memories of the breath-taking smog! Love watching those old engines laying down more black soot in the air. Ahhhh, think I'll light another Camel....
ReplyDelete